Over the years we’ve framed countless cross stitches and embroideries. But this one was in particularly bad shape. The owner was desperate, she’d been unable to find anyone willing to take on this complicated job. We thought we could not only frame it, but straighten it as well.

In a perfect world cross stitches and embroideries would be blemish and wrinkle free; ready for framing. However, with the amount of time we invest in these works of art, it’s rare for them to be stain and dust free.

Unfortunately most tapestries that are brought in for stretching and framing are a little worse for wear. Dropped stitches, animal hairs, rust stains (only ever use stainless steel needles and pins!) The constant pushing, pulling and twisting of the fabric whilst we work can warp the fabric structure. Embroidery hoops and stretcher frames can help minimise this allowing your stitches to be taught but they also can leave marks and creases.

This one fell into the worse category. But with a little time, technology and tlc we were able to whip it back into shape.

Getting rid of the warp

Our first issue was getting rid of the ‘kink’. The fabric had warped from a square to a diamond. This took time, but by the end of the week we had a square cross stitch again. Once we had the fabric back into it’s original shape we were able to stretch and pin it in place (stainless steel pins only, anything else and you risk damaging your work.)

Stretching and pinning a cross stitch

Pinning a cross stitch correctly is a time consuming job. The fabric needs to be taut, but not tight. The image has to be centred and straight (both vertically and horizontally). Firstly we centre the image, then we work a little on each side, going backwards and forwards until we’re happy that the cross stitch is taut and straight.

The completed job. Framed and stretched so there is no sign of the original warped cross stitch.

Framing the cross stitch

Once pinned we can get onto the framing. The style of frame reflects the style of the work, traditional, classic, and by using 2 matts, in two shades of green. We were able to highlight the work, and keep it ‘light’ and illuminated without overwhelming the work. If we’d used darker colours the mood would have been heightened but you’d be less able to see the intricacies of the stitches.

Framed cross stitch

Finally, after working on the cross stitch for a few weeks it was finished. The twisted and warped fabric was now framed and waiting for collection. Needless to say our customer was ecstatic, and so were we. We love a happy customer!

Frame Styles

Frame Colours and sizes

What colours and sizes work with the artwork. Will a large frame overwhelm the work? Does a small frame make it feel claustrophobic? When you look around our store you will see that we often have the same frame in different sizes and colours. Thematically the frame suits the work but subtle changes in colour and size can make a tremendous difference.

Multiple Frames

More and more frequently we’re seeing customers creating their own art. From momento’s they’ve bought whilst overseas, family treasures, children’s artwork and photographs. Multiple frames can transform a small piece of art into a showstopper!

So together we’ve chosen the frame and the mat for your artwork. However, there is one final decision to be made; what type of glass do you want?

At Fastframe we offer three types of glass (as well as perspex, but we’ll save the perspex discussion for another day.)

Normal Glass

Normal Glass is what we call the standard glass that we use. It’s a great quality, professional standard and our most affordable option.

Conservation Clear

Tru Vue Conservation Clear glass is recommended for original art, limited editions and other valuable art work. Manufactured in America, it blocks 99% of UV rays, this helps reduce fading and discolouration that can occur over time. It meets all conservation standards. If the work that you’re having framed is important to you, we recommend Tru Vue Conservation Clear glass.

AR – Reflection Free

Tru Vue AR Reflection Free glass is a Museum quality Anti Reflective (AR) glass. Although it blocks less UV (78%) than the Tru Vue Conservation Clear, works framed with AR looks ‘glass-less’ as it reduces reflections to less than 1%.

AR glass is virtually ‘invisible’. It’s reflection free so the artwork ‘pops’. The work’s colours appear enhanced and the work appears brighter. If expose to light is not an issue and you want to feel like you can simply reach out and touch the artwork; AR glass is the best product for you.

UltraView

Tru Vue UltraView glass is an affordable high quality Anti Reflective (AR) glass. UltraView will still stop 70% of UV and cut reflections to less than 1% so that it is also almost “invisible”.

Caring for your framed artwork

A regular dusting should suffice. But if you have some grubby fingerprints to remove follow these instructions for all types of glass we supply:

Only use a clean, soft, lint-free cloth (like a micro-fiber cloth)

Spray some glass cleaner (ammonia free) onto the cloth, not the glass itself

Signing boards are now a rite of passage for the young. Bar and Bat mitzvah’s, 18th’s and 21st’s. But they shouldn’t just be wasted on the young.

One of the Fastframe owners (Sami) recently celebrated his 60th Birthday and he decided to mark the occasion with a party and a special signing board for his guests to sign. The completed signboard is both a representation of the customers life and an elegant and fun memento for them to reflect on.

Photo Selection

Most signing boards we do for Gen Y’s and Z’s are a collage of photo’s of themselves, friends and family. Recently we’ve seen an increase in single photo signing boards where parents get some photograph’s taken professionally of the star of the party.

We collected a number of his passport and drivers licence photographs. These are all taken in a similar manner so we immediately had a continuity of size and pose.

While most of the pictures weren’t damaged, when a photograph is enlarged and printed, any imperfections will be magnified. It was therefore decided to enhance and restore the images so that the backgrounds were removed and made uniform, the colours were converted to black and white and sharpened so that the images were crisp. This made the world of difference.

Printing the photographs

Fastframe recenlty bought an Wide Format Printer. This allows us to print beautiful colour correct pictures up to 24inch wide and up to 60inch long !

Framing the Signing Board

Sami wanted a sleek, sophisticated and elegant signing board. We decided that a black matt would complement the photographs best. A white matt would have washed them out and changed the tone of the signing board to fun and festive. On the night, guests were asked to pen their best wishes using a silver pen. By having everyone write in one colour also helps to unify and focus your attention on the photographs before the writing. Multi-coloured pens can result in your attention being distracted.

Sami’s framed Signing board

Sami’s framed signing board was a huge success! For your next special occassion, think about asking us to design a custom signing board, it will be a wonderful reminder of your day.

Framing Military Medals has become a passion of ours. The framing of military medals and the accompanying photographs and memorabilia tells a story about the recipient and their time in history. We pride ourselves on our attention to detail and commitment to respecting the recipients memory.

Best practice for framing Military Medals

To present your medals in the best possible light, firstly they need to be professionally Court Mounted.

Court Mounting is a process where the medals are hand stitched securely to a backing board which is wrapped with the medal ribbon. Court Mounting was originally devised because Queen Victoria didn’t like the noise from her courtier’s medals ‘chinking’ together.

In a frame, Court Mounting ensures that the medals are secured and do not swing and hit the glazing.

All our Court Mounting is professionally done by David Hirsh of David Hirsh Medal Mounting.

Customer designed Medal Framing

The Complete framing Design

Next, we need to design the layout of the frame, complete with medals, photographs and memorabilia so that they tell the story of the medals in an aesthetically pleasing way. Often the photographs and memorabilia are in poor condition and will need to be restored and reprinted.

Finishing touches, a Brass Plaque

To finish off the framing of the military medals, we like to include a brass plaque. We can have the brass plaque engraved with the medal recipients details or description of their accomplishments. The brass plaques are similar to those used in museums and art galleries and makes a great addition to framed military medals.

Framing memorabilia and tickets from a concert or sporting event is something that we’re seeing more and more customers wanting to do. Custom framing allows you to capture the moment so that you can relive it whenever you see the frame hanging on your wall.

One of our regular customers recently attended the 2012 London Olympics and brought his tickets and some memorabilia in for us to frame. Four years ago we did something similar for his tickets and memorabilia from the Beijing Olympics, so we already understood what he had in mind. We just had to design something that not only presented beautifully but captured his experience.

Framed memorabilia from the 2008, Beijing Olympics

What items could I include when framing memorabilia ?

Anything that reminds you of the event. We’ve framed poker chips, subway passes, concert tickets, photographs, entry passes, coins, stuffed animals etc. Think outside the square, if it means something to you, if it reminds you of the event or how you felt, then we can frame it.

Our lucky Olympic visitor wanted to make his ticket stubs and passes a feature in his home, however the London memorabilia needed to work with the previous frame we’d designed for the Beijing memorabilia and also stand alone.

How to conservation frame ticket stubs

When framing items that may increase in value it’s imperative that all framing techniques are reversible without damaging the item. Fastframe only uses acid free papers, mats and tapes to ensure that your item is in the same condition now and in 20 years time. To secure the ticket tubs and entry passes in place we used archival corners, they are nearly invisible and allow us to hold items in place without damaging them.

Framed memorabilia from the 2012 London Olympics

Custom Design Framing

We custom design each frame, this allows us to coordinate the colours of the items and their dimensions with the matts and moulding. A well framed item highlights the work. In this case we decided to used our Computerised Matt Cutter to a cut out the London Olympics Logo as a background. The logo was so unique that everyone immediately knows what it is and draws the viewer into the frame wanting to see which events our lucky customer attended.

Olympic Memorabilia for Framing

A fan of the Olympics, but couldn’t get there ?, well you can get memorabilia for the London Olympics from the London Olympics Memorabilia site.

A long term customer of Fastframe was transferred to England for the past 9 years and only just returned a week ago, and one of her first stops was to come back to Fastframe.

Whilst away she bought some South African canvas, unfortunately the canvas sides were too small to be stretched onto a Gallery Wrap.

The customers first thought was for a small black frame; but it didn’t do the artwork justice.

So we added a second frame to enhance the size, strength and boldness of the artwork.

The painting is vibrant, loud and incredibly striking. However the extra frame draws you into the story. Instead of being overwhelmed by the brightness and vibrant colours the extra frame allows you to see the story first; colours second.

Take the case of this plaster Elephant freeze; it’s quite small at only 5 x 15 cm.

As the freeze is quite intricate we wanted to draw the viewer into the artwork whilst creating a statement piece. We decided that mutliple frames would create the best impact.

We added a thick, black, wood grain frame; covering the damage and exposed plaster. This worked well with the freeze but the customer wanted something larger. As the freeze was a momento of her travels, we then added a bronze frame with a pattern that reflected the ethnicity of the work and matched the colour of the freeze perfectly. The final frame we added was a detailed black frame that added gravitas and size.

Finally, we added AR Reflection free glass. AR glass is invisable, so it feels like you can touch the carving. The final dimensions were 28 x 38cm.

The process of turning our small delicate freeze into a work of art can be see in this video.